There's lots of talk about being a "buyer or seller" come the trade deadline. Tom Benjamin had a good post recently on how it's almost never a good decision to be a "buyer" come the end of February. Deadline acquisitions rarely make much of a difference in the post season and almost always cost way too much to acquire in the first place. Take our own "deadline deal" from last year: Brad Stuart and Wayne Primeau for Chuck Kobasew and Andrew Ference. The Flames ended up getting pounded in the first round anyways and then lost Stuart to free agency in July (and, almost as damaging, re-signed Primeau long-term). This year, Kobasew and Ference have been significant contributors in Boston and the Flames have precisely nothing (or in Primeau's case, worse than nothing) to show for it. A lot of last year's big deadline deals went that way: Nashville/Forsberg, Atlanta/Tkachuk, NYI/Smyth.
That's why I think, if anything, the Flames should be sellers this year. Make a Stuart deal of their own (except in reverse, obviously) with someone desperate to make a splash in the post season. Grab a couple of relatively cheap yet capable pieces from someone for a Langkow or Huselius - guys who in all likelihood won't be here next September anyways. For example, I've heard the Flyers Jeff Carter may be available because of Philly's cap situation next year and Carter's pending restricted free agency (they already have 49M committed with Jason Smith, RJ Umberger and Randy Jones needing to be re-signed). And Im guessing the Flyers organization would love to do something in the play-offs after last year's embarrassing season. How does Langkow+prospect for Carter and Kukkonen sound perhaps?
That's an off-the-cuff kind of suggestion, but you get the picture. As has been demonstrated here and elsewhere, Sutter's going to need a lot of bargains to make this roster work next season. He might as well start hunting for them sooner rather than later.
